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The actual quote from Benjamin Franklin is Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor saf

• slg 4y ago
  And it doesn't mean what people often claim it means. He was speaking literally. William Penn's family was trying to buy off the state legislature with a one time payment for military defense in exchange for the state legislature conceding more power to the Penns. It wasn't about some abstract liberty like privacy or safety against something abstract like terrorism. It was Franklin judging a specific political offer to help the legislature fight a war in exchange for giving up some rights to self-governance.